A Call for Self Reliance
By
Cary Tate
Our founding fathers envisioned that for the United States of America, the people will be sovereign and that it be guaranteed by the constitution. Unfortunately, today your sovereignty is not recognized until you assert it, and you cannot assert it if you are dependent upon, and therefore a subject to, your benefactor. Are you dependent up your government? Are you completely self reliant? Perhaps like most, you are somewhere in the middle.
I suppose one can argue that there is no such thing as being truly self reliant. However nature truly provides everything we need to be self reliant. The animals in the forest, deer, squirrels, raccoons, and the birds etc have no need of money or government. Driven by their own impulses and needs, nature provides for them.
Government should provide a benefit greater than its cost to be of value to those who have consented to be governed else it becomes a loathsome burden to those who are leeched of substance by others who have lost sight of what nature has provided and have had their natural impulses and instincts defiled by an intoxicating and seducing power.
It is the quality of self-sufficiency that empowers the individual in negotiations and helps to keep a tyrannical collective in check. An individual who is not self-sufficient is a slave to his patron and therefore cannot exercise nor fully employ his liberty.
Perhaps inspired by Maslows’ famous hierarchy of needs I have identified 7 real needs to be fulfilled to secure ones liberty. Contrariwise, each category represents a potential arena where a need can be exploited to restrict your liberty.
1.Health
2.Food and Water
3.Energy and Fuel
4.Transportation
5.Real Estate and property
6.Communications
7.Security and arms
Though I’m sure there are others, these are critical and this list is somewhat of an hierarchy. For example, most modern forms of transportation are useless without fuel. Likewise, most people will not be focused on security if they are sick and starving. If you are dependent upon others for any one of these basic categories, YOUR LIBERTY IS BEING RESTRICTED!
For many, if not most citizens of the USA, these are the very things that we are at risk of losing. Like our founding fathers, we have to contend for these things perpetually because the natural forces of government are opposed to them. For example, governments have a collective interest in its subjects’ health but not you individually. You have to provide that for yourself. For another example, local governments may provide public transportation but they won’t buy you a car.
Involuntary collectivism is the enemy to individual liberty and is continually and relentlessly opposed to it. When collectivism is spontaneous and voluntary it is a beautiful expression of the mysterious Christian love and is not exercised as an occasion of the flesh. However, when the church fails to employ its liberty for love and instead consumes its resources upon its own lusts, governments can and will use the opportunity to take by force the resources of the productive and redistribute them, consequently consolidating power associated with those resources and attracting those who would abuse such power. The result as foretold in scripture, is characterized by man’s ultimate attempt to govern himself and be his own god. Therefore, it is in effect, a religion of “statism” which is unashamed idolatry and anti-Christ. Scripture also warns this battle is not with flesh and blood but with the powers and principalities orchestrated by the ruler of this world, our adversary the Devil.
Many of our nation’s presidents, democrat and republican, have warned us of this creeping socialism and its consequence of eroding liberty. One can easily argue the benefits of collective projects but cannot deny the risk presented to individual liberty once we become dependent upon this nanny state.
Only when the collective is composed of God fearing self-sufficient individuals will our great nation be sustained and individual liberties preserved. For this cause we have received the calling to help equip others to become sovereign individuals lest we grow apathetic of our treasure of liberty that was purchased with the blood of patriots past and our Lord Jesus.
Christ, whose lordship is perfect, and our only rightful authority of which we became subjects when we believed his word, purchased this liberty. Paramount to the health and strength of a mature assembly of sovereign seeking individuals should be the understanding of the priority to strive for this mature state of - individual first then corporate self-sufficiency. This is the fundamental foundation of a stable civilization.
Even Jesus set the example when he first prayed in the garden that he be glorified then afterward he prayed that those that believe on him be unified. The latter is dependent upon the former. Likewise, our maturity and self reliance is the value and strength we bring to our churches, communities, state and nation.
So the mature state of self-sufficiency is a prerequisite to liberty that is indeed genuine, sustainable and practical. We must remember that vain, humanistic and altruistic philosophies of the natural man’s wisdom results in the entanglement and bondage of himself again as those with appetites for authority struggle for positions of power and influence. Therfore our priceless liberty must be continually subject to a conscience nurtured by none other than the supernatural and paternal wisdom of the Holy Ghost.
It is good to assert your sovereignty, not in self-centered rebellion but in honoring the father by following his example. What say ye?